Apple’s Five-Year Plan to Hurt Qualcomm Burns to The Ground

Apple is just one of the many big tech companies that are hated by a lot of people, primarily because of their anti-consumer practices that have been revealed to the public. But if people wanted more reason to hate Apple, then they can look no further than their recently-concluded legal battle with Qualcomm, where Apple surrendered after they implemented a diabolical plan to hurt Qualcomm, the company known to be the world leader when it comes to 5G technology. The hearing started and ended this April.

Apple vs Qualcomm

When Apple filed a complaint against Qualcomm in 2017, accusing the company of making apple them twice through purchases and royalty fees, it was actually executing one of the steps in a plan to hurt Qualcomm, a plan that was revealed to have been formed in 2014 in the offices of Apple. In the plan, Apple detailed how they would “hurt Qualcomm financially” by exerting pressure on them (Apple did this by working with Qualcomm’s rival, Intel), and how Apple is planning to provoke a legal battle against Qualcomm “until after the end of 2016,” when Apple’s contract ends with Qualcomm. All of this, just so that they can avoid paying royalties to Qualcomm. Somehow, Qualcomm was able to obtain these documents and was able to use it during the trial, which ended immediately after the opening remarks because Apple made a settlement deal with Qualcomm.

In a very suspicious turn of events, Apple and Qualcomm have agreed to a settlement even before the hearing ended. When the opening remarks from Qualcomm finished, the news that Apple agreed to a settlement with Qualcomm filled the room. Apple agreed to pay Qualcomm an undisclosed amount. Apple also signed multiple agreements with Qualcomm which forced Intel to retreat from the 5G modem business the same day.

Everyone thinks that Apple threw in the towel. It is likely that Apple saw a flaw in their plans that will harm their company, not to mention that Qualcomm’s lawyer revealed their dastardly plan everyone. The flaw is that Intel is years behind Qualcomm when it comes to technology. As shown in the last CES event, Intel is not yet prepared to roll out 5G modems or any 5G tech. Working with Intel would put the iPhone years behind any smartphone that comes out as 5G ready when 5G commercial networks become available in 2020.

With the reveal of their plan, Apple probably thought they were going to lose the case. So they abandoned their plan and settled to an agreement with Qualcomm at the very last minute, which explains the weird last-minute announcement. Apple knew their plan won’t work, so they abandoned it, lest they lose a partner in making the next iPhone 5G ready.

While it seems that Qualcomm is the one in the wrong here for making Apple pay twice, it is hypocritical of Apple to accuse Qualcomm of wrongdoings while committing a lot of it themselves. Also, Qualcomm owns the patents to a lot of technologies used today, and many of them are being used by Apple. Apple tricks its customers in several ways so they can scam those customers of their money, so Apple cannot possibly be burdened by the royalty fees Qualcomm is charging them.

With this, Qualcomm’s business model is secured. Every company can’t complain about having to pay Qualcomm’s licensing fees now. If it was any other company and not Apple, Qualcomm could have probably had a tougher fight. Apple, being Apple, just had to do all that scheming. It seems that the Apple slogan doesn’t just apply to their technology, but also to how they handle their relationship with the partners.